# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1863_S343
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report of the Sixth Ordinary Synodical Assembly of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. 343

likely that Christ, in the passage cited, meant precisely the Jewish, Mosaic Sabbath, for he had after all used the word in order to defend himself against the Pharisees' accusation that he had transgressed it. Here, then, one sees on how uncertain a ground Clausen himself stands in this his chief proof-text. At the same time it was repeatedly pointed out how Clausen must do violence to passages as sunlight-clear as Romans 14, while he wished to bring every possible thing out of the darkest ones, and when he here again appealed to the fact that his interpretation of this passage was also that of excellent, orthodox teachers, it was again answered that one should follow human teachers only when they have the truth, that is, holy Scripture, on their side; at the same time one should well note that one reason why several orthodox teachers have expressed themselves unclearly, indeed incorrectly, about Sunday is that in their time no controversy about it had yet arisen, and they therefore did not yet feel compelled to express themselves so sharply and definitely on it. If, at Romans 14, where it says "all days," one can understand thereby "except Sunday," then one could just as well make exceptions at 1 Timothy 2:4, "God will have all men to be helped and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Several now expressed their joy that through these deliberations they had come to clarity on the matter, and since so much time had already been spent on this question, a poll was put in this form: Does anyone, besides the Third Commandment, know any word of God which obligates us Christians to set apart Sunday, or any other day of the week, as a holy day or festival?

To this question only Pastor Clausen answered: Yes. At the next session, however, he took back his Yes and declared: From his youth he had held the conviction that Sunday was not merely a human but a divine ordinance, and it was with this conviction that he had come to the synod. He must confess that in this he had probably relied mostly on human teachers, whom he had been accustomed to hold in high esteem, and he recognized it as a weakness on his part that he often — and so also, in part, during these very deliberations — thought rather of his own earlier grounds than of the proofs brought against him; yet he wished to let God's Word decide the matter, and a single word of God was enough for him. Now he must confess that some doubts about the correctness of his previous position had arisen in him, but he earnestly wished to seek to come to clarity, and he asked the synod to forgive him whatever he might have done wrong in his manner of proceeding, likewise the offense he might have given; he also asked that the matter be taken up again at the next synod. For the present he considered himself hardly able any longer to take part in the discussion of this question.